VIDEO An American general revealed how the Ukrainians detect Shahed drones: “They took 8,000 mobile phones and put them on two-meter poles”

Ukraine is using a network of thousands of mobile phones with microphones attached to detect Russian airstrikes, particularly those by explosive Shahed drones, Europe’s most senior US Air Force officer has revealed.

The Ukrainian military usually reports a high number of downed Shahed drones out of the total launched by the Russians, often over 70-80%.

So far no details have been given on how to detect and counter the drones and missiles launched by the Russians, with the air force using a type statement saying that “anti-aircraft missile units, mobile fire groups and electronic warfare equipment of the Air Force and of the Ukrainian Defense Forces” are used in repelling enemy air attacks.

Most recently, the Ukrainian Air Force announced on Wednesday morning that overnight the Russians launched 13 Shahed drones, of which ten were shot down, in three regions of Ukraine.

“They took 8,000 mobile phones and put them on two-meter poles”

However, General James B. Hecker, the commander of the US Air Force in Europe, recently disclosed that the Ukrainians “took eight thousand mobile phones and put them on poles two meters high.”

According to him, the phones, to which microphones were also attached, were installed at the edge of the country, to detect enemy attacks. “To be able to hear the attack drones flying over them,” the general said, noting that such an installation costs only $500.

“They were able to get their direction, they were able to get their speed,” he continued.

“And they trained a guy to sit in an AAA (anti-aircraft system) for six hours and look at an iPad that shows him where the drones are coming from,” Hecker said, citing a recent spate of Russian launches in which the Ukrainians detected 84 air targets and shot down 80 of them.

How the system works

Acoustic sensors collect unusual sounds from the environment, and then artificial intelligence is used to determine whether the anomalies are kamikaze drones or approaching missiles, writes The Telegraph.

“It’s interesting that this technology is coming back today because it was in vogue before the invention of radar in the 1920s and 1930s. History, in a way, is closing a cycle, but adapted to the technological age we have today,” he said. said Dr. Thomas Withington, an air defense expert at the Royal United Services Institute, referring to the acoustic systems used a century ago to detect aircraft.

Mobile phones are constantly switched on to detect approaching aerial targets and use local mobile networks to relay the information to a centralized system.

These systems are funded through the Safe Skies initiative, a program established under President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s United24 platform, according to the British publication.